Santa Ana, CA Sign Regulations: Digital Billboards (2026)

Article XII of the Zoning Code, rewritten by Ordinance No. NS-3023 in July 2022, exists to allow the installation of digital billboards adjacent to freeways in suitable locations and the conversion of existing static or on-premise freeway signs to digital displays, per Section 41-1100. Section 41-1130 confines new and reconstructed billboards to non-residentially zoned parcels inside the Freeway Corridor -- defined as land within 300 feet of the edge of pavement along the I-5, SR-22 (Garden Grove) and SR-55 (Costa Mesa) freeways -- and bars them within 500 feet of any residentially zoned parcel (reducible to 150 feet in mixed-use districts only by Planning Commission CUP), outside Caltrans right-of-way, and near the Santa Ana Water Tower view corridor between Main Street and Grand Avenue.

Table 41-1131 then sets the physical envelope: sign area is whatever Caltrans allows, a maximum of two faces, a 60-foot height ceiling, 1,000 feet of separation between billboards on the same freeway side, and a single vertical support with all conduits concealed inside it. Section 41-1131(b) flatly prohibits building or rebuilding any billboard as a static (non-digital) sign -- every new or reconstructed billboard must be digital. Getting there requires layered approvals: a Development Project Plan and Conditional Use Permit from the Planning Commission (with a public hearing for new construction), plus a Billboard Operating Agreement executed by the City Manager under Section 41-1113 that must confer a substantial public benefit, such as removing legal nonconforming billboards or funding streetscape improvements.